Top military honour now cast in Canada:

[Laurence Strong]

Taken from CTV:

.....A Victoria Cross medal has been produced in Canada for the first time, and there are reports it will be presented by the Queen in April.

The Globe and Mail reported Saturday that Queen Elizabeth will present the medal at a ceremony marking the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge in France.

The move would restore the medal -- awarded just 1,350 times since it was installed by Queen Victoria in the 1850s after the Crimean War -- to the top spot in Canada's list of military decorations.

Only 94 Canadians have received the medal.

The Victoria Cross was first awarded to a Canadian in 1856, and most recently in 1945. None of the recipients are still living.

In the past, the medals were cast by Hancock, a London jewellery retailer, but a source has told The Globe the medal has now been designed and produced in Canada for the first time.

Emmanuelle Sajous, deputy herald chancellor at Rideau Hall, said it would be at least a couple of weeks before final decisions are made about how the made-in-Canada Victoria Cross will be presented to the public.

"Nothing is confirmed," Sajous said. "We don't have any details about how and who and where and when. There are a lot of options and a lot of different events being planned."

The departments of Veterans' Affairs, Defence, Canadian Heritage and Natural Resources -- along with the Royal Canadian Mint -- have all been involved in the design.

Military historian Jack Granatstein told The Globe the physical reinstatement of the Victoria Cross is a milestone for Canada.

"There is clearly an attachment to the VC as a pretty scarce gallantry award," said the former director-general of the Canadian War Museum.

"It will be a continuation of the past and it will be done in a Canadian context. I guess in a sense it's the capping of the Canadian honours system so I think it's a good thing."

Government sources have told The Globe the medal will be presented to Prime Minister Stephen Harper by the Queen at the Vimy Ridge ceremony in recognition of the gallantry of the Unknown Soldier, whose remains rest in a tomb next to the National War Memorial in Ottawa.

The soldier, whose body was exhumed from a cemetery near Vimy Ridge in 2000, was one of 1,603 unidentified Canadian troops who died in the First World War battle.

The battle, which took place on April 9, 1917, is often considered a key moment in Canada's military history. Roughly 10,000 Canadians were wounded and 3,598 of those succumbed to their injuries.

The ceremony in April will serve two purposes. It will commemorate the anniversary of the battle and serve as the dedication for the newly restored Canadian National Vimy Memorial.

The Royal Canadian Legion has lobbied the government for years to reinstate the medal, which was put aside in 1972 in favour of a Canadian honours system.

The move to design and cast the medal in Canada should put an end to years of controversy over whether Canadian soldiers should receive an award that has British origins.

The Canadian VC is awarded for "most conspicuous bravery, a daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy."

There are few differences between the Canadian and British medals. The Canadian decoration can be revoked and it bears the Latin inscription Pro Valore rather than For Valour.

The British medals are cast from bronze of Chinese origin that was used in Russian cannons captured at the conclusion of the Crimean War, but there is no word yet on what type of metal will be used to make the Canadian medals.....

[peter monahan]

And will say "Pro Valore" in Latin, thus neatly sidestepping the issue of how to fit "For Valour" from the original VCs and "Pour Valeur" into that tiny space at the bottom! Ain't politics grand?

Peter

[Guest Darrell]

Geez ... surely someone out there has something against Latin??? After all we are a country of such diverse cultures and languages ... someone HAS to be offended ... don't they???

[peter monahan]

Geez ... surely someone out there has something against Latin??? After all we are a country of such diverse cultures and languages ... someone HAS to be offended ... don't they???

Yes, I expect we will here from the Etruscan Liberation Front or the Association for the Promulgation of Neo-Druidic Values any day now, Darrell. Never mind the fuss we'll get when some media dweeb identifies Latin as a "dead language" and all the toga party types jump in topoint out that it's really just Italian before it went to college.

[Guest Rick Research]

Uhhhhh, given the MINISCULE numbers of VCs awarded to date, and especially recently, this doesn't seem... rational to me that Commonwealth countries which must (sniff) not forebear to continue with "British" awards would keep the same system and the same names BUT boondoggle Separate-and-Distinct local versions--with whole new bureaucratic procedures and wildly different standards, one can only anticipate-- thus making a further mockery of the "same" decoration.

It's either a VC... or it ISN'T.

And Good God-- how many Victoria Crosses is Ottawa ever intending to hand out, given the squelching of combat decorations existing NOW?

[Ed_Haynes]

Uhhhhh, given the MINISCULE numbers of VCs awarded to date, and especially recently, this doesn't seem... rational to me that Commonwealth countries which must (sniff) not forebear to continue with "British" awards would keep the same system and the same names BUT boondoggle Separate-and-Distinct local versions--with whole new bureaucratic procedures and wildly different standards, one can only anticipate-- thus making a further mockery of the "same" decoration.

It's either a VC... or it ISN'T.

And Good God-- how many Victoria Crosses is Ottawa ever intending to hand out, given the squelching of combat decorations existing NOW?

Part of what is happeniong is the struggle to retain ties to tradition even while asserting some degree of independence and autonymous control. While India and Pakistan (who, constitutionally, had no choice) came up with new top awards, places like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand want to "have it both ways".

[Guest Darrell]

Part of what is happeniong is the struggle to retain ties to tradition even while asserting some degree of independence and autonymous control. While India and Pakistan (who, constitutionally, had no choice) came up with new top awards, places like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand want to "have it both ways".

Plus the fact that if a box of corn-flakes in Western Canada isn't written in equal parts french, someone has a coniption fit, I would hate to think of the uproar of civil rights if the VC was English only

In this day and age, political correctness is such a joke you can't even call Dec 25th Christmas without someone complaining. It doesn't surprise me in the least that they went away from the English "For Valour" to a Latin translation.

[PKeating]

It's not really a Victoria Cross, is it? It's about as legitimate as the Victory Cross Idi Amin Dada commissioned and awarded himself. Mind you, I think Amin's "VC" was at least made in England. I wonder if it occurred to them that the kind of French Canadian who would worry about the legend "For Valour" in English on a VC awarded by the Canadian government would be unlikely to serve in the Canadian armed forces to begin with. He would see them as the direct descendants of the British and New English forces that destroyed New France in the 1750s, as an army of occupation. Maybe the Qu?becois government should resurrect the Military Order of Saint-Louis. That would surely keep everyone happy.

PK

Edited March 7, 2007 by PKeating

[peter monahan]

Sorry gents! Didn't mean to provoke a political debate. Me, I can live with French cornflakes - it's a traditiona by now in Canada, tradition being defined as anything you do two years in a row without a government grant the second time.

I agree with Rick though, either it's a VC (British made, awarded by the Crown) or it's a copy. If it ain't the original, Latin is as good a language as any because, basically, it doesn't matter.

I think the intent of the quiet but determined lobbying was to "get the VC back". In fact, I'd bet most Canadians, if they knew anything at all of medals would assume that the VC is still our highest decoration. The "made in Canada" idea is typical of a committee of politicians - well intentuioned but clueless. Oh, sorry, two bad words in one sentence - the "C word" and the "P word". Sigh!

The latest twist, which may almost make up for the whole dumb idea, is that Her Majesty will bestow a "Canadian VC" on our Unknown Soldier, a Vimy Ridge casualty, who lies in Ottawa at the National War Memorial. But our esteemed PM won't confirm this, only says "We'll let you know". Sigh again!

Peter

[Michael Johnson]

If memory serves, the U.S. Unknown Soldier was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, and the Victoria Cross by Great Britain, while the British and French Unknown Soldiers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Edited March 7, 2007 by Michael Johnson

[leigh kitchen]

This isn't the only forum where discussion of this "VC" is going on, but I have'nt got the stamina to shout about it on here too, I'll sit on the sidelines.

[Kev in Deva]

The latest twist, which may almost make up for the whole dumb idea, is that Her Majesty will bestow a "Canadian VC" on our Unknown Soldier, a Vimy Ridge casualty, who lies in Ottawa at the National War Memorial. But our esteemed PM won't confirm this, only says "We'll let you know". Sigh again!

Peter

Hi! Pete,

slightly confused here, but, why does it take the Queen of Great Britain to lay the "Canadian version of the V.C. on the Canadian Unknown soldier grave?? As there is a smalll / large possibility the Uknown Soldier might have a French connection, will the President of France be invited as well??

Surely if the Cross is an "independant Canadian award", somebody of high enough stature and rank from Canada could perform the ceremony, which will also focus attention (for a very few moments) on the grave of a soldier lost in the Great War.

By the way, please dont mis-inteprit my comments as anti-royalist, the Royal family is an integaral part of Britain & the old Commenwealths heratige.

Kevin in Deva

[Laurence Strong]

As Her Majesty is the Queen of Canada still, all Honours, Hat badges, Flags etc have to have Royal acceptance. Though it is now more a formality, protocol dictates it so.

[Riley1965]

IMHO,

There should be no problem over the spelling of "FOR VALOUR" on the VC. That is what is on the medal. If I jumped on the "Correct Language For Me" bandwagon, the Air force would have to change the wording on my medals to Irish Gaelic The VC says For Valour and that is that!!!

Doc

[Michael White]

Uhhhhh, given the MINISCULE numbers of VCs awarded to date, and especially recently, this doesn't seem... rational to me that Commonwealth countries which must (sniff) not forebear to continue with "British" awards would keep the same system and the same names BUT boondoggle Separate-and-Distinct local versions--with whole new bureaucratic procedures and wildly different standards, one can only anticipate-- thus making a further mockery of the "same" decoration.

It's either a VC... or it ISN'T.

And Good God-- how many Victoria Crosses is Ottawa ever intending to hand out, given the squelching of combat decorations existing NOW?

Well said!